Dr. Strangenuke, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nuclear Power November 20, 2008

I think that the rules for two stererotypes that I claim, peacenik and environmentalist, say that I cannot want more nuclear power.  The problem is that those stereotypes conflict with another of my faces: I am also a science and math buff.

How can I love nuclear power?  What about the spent fuel?  FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, MATT, THE WASTE!!  WHAT ABOUT THE WASTE???  YUCCA MOUNTAIN WILL BE THE DEATH OF US ALL!!

What if I told you it was not one-tenth of the big deal we make of it?  I’ll try.  This from a recent report on foreignpolicy.com:

The big problem is that plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years, and the argument goes: how can we keep spent plutonium safe for that long?  It’s not possible, right?

Wrong.  A couple of facts: (1) Plutonium is so insoluble in groundwater that it’s really not a problem to surrounding communities.  It’s really quite easy to store safely.  (2) Many countries, France chief among them, reprocess plutonium for use as fuel (again) in reactors.  Works like a charm.

The real problem, it turns out, is other waste resulting from the process of converting plutonium into power.  But even that isn’t what you think it is: the US government has placed very heavy restrictions on how much leakage can be allowed from, for example, Nevada’s Yucca Mountain waste site.  The facility is required to show that someone living downstream from the site, and drinking all of their water from underground wells, would ingest no more than 15 millirems of radiation per year as a result of Yucca Mountain’s activities.  For comparison: those same people will get 350 millirems from nature and from normal human activity.

If we maintain a very simple level of care (ensuring that there is no more than a 10 percent chance that no more than 10 percent will leak), much lower than our current standards , the danger from storing nuclear waste is actually less than if we had never mined the plutonium in the first place.

Nuclear fuel is clean and safe.  We should get used to that as fact.

They’re Picketing the Mormon Temple in L.A… November 7, 2008

…and, apparently, some LDS meetinghouses throughout the state.

Which makes all kinds of sense, since Mormons comprise roughly 2% of the state’s population.

Umm, not to pry, but the other 51% don’t count?  We’re the problem?

I know the argument: “But they raised most of the money, and organized to walk neighborhoods and such!”

So the thesis is: blame Mormons, not because they were the biggest voting bloc, but because (apparently uniquely among the dozens of church groups who supported the measure) they know how to organize and fundraise?

Seriously?

Let’s Talk Cabinet November 1, 2008

Barack Obama has indicated several times his admiration for Abraham Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals,” the bipartisan cabinet that helped him work through some of our nation’s thorniest problems ever.  When I pointed this out, Bill Stellmon asked me a few months ago to name some of Obama’s likely cabinet picks.

Well, we’re close.  Everyone has to admit at this point that it’s looking a lot like we’ll be inaugurating President Obama in February.  So maybe we should think about this.  Herewith, then, some ideas for Obama’s cabinet.  I’m not saying that this is who he will pick, but it has been suggested, at least, that some of these have a chance:

Secretary of State: Strobe Talbott, Bill Bradley or Bill Clinton.  Talbott, the president of the Brookings Institute and the author of The Great Experiment (which outlines how America could go about regaining its stature in the world), has the experience and temperament for the job.  Bradley has long foreign policy experience, and shares Obama’s calm temperament and thoughtful outlook.  Clinton, Talbott’s old Oxford classmate, can be faulted for many things, but foreign policy isn’t one of them.  If he’d take the job he’d be a gem — in part because he still has tremendous worldwide popularity.

Secretary of Defense:  Robert Gates.  This is a horse that simply does not need to be changed at this point.  Gates has largely cleaned up the mess left by Donald Rumsfeld, has managed two wars admirably in his tenure, and (importantly) is on record as saying that an additional war with Iran would be “disastrous.”  Case closed — he’s a keeper.

Secretary of the Treasury. Michael Bloomberg or Indra Nooyi.  Former Republican and current Independent Bloomberg has proven a remarkably capable manager as New York’s mayor, and his longtime experience is in the financial sector.  Nooyi, current chairwoman and CEO of PepsiCo, would bring experience from outside of Wall Street to the job.  And isn’t it time we had financial thought leadership come from the industrial or service sectors, and not from the authors of our current mess?

Secretary of the Interior.  Arnold Schwarzenegger or Tim Pawlenty.  Both of these Republicans have consistently bucked their party to pursue green initiatives in their states.  Schwarzenegger has effectively taken drilling off of California’s coasts off the table.  Pawlenty would bring some interesting credibility to Obama’s cabinet as one of McCain’s VP finalists, and he is a genuine “greeny” who is the author of his state’s Clean Energy Technology Collaborative.

National Security Advisor.  Fareed Zakaria or Brent Scowcroft.  Obama was recently seen poring over Zakaria’s The Post-American World, which does not describe the fall of America so much as it describes the rise of everyone else, and what America should do to thrive in a rapidly changing global environment.  Former Bush (senior) advisor Scowcroft brings bipartisan muscle and understanding to the job.

Attorney General.  Deval Patrick.  Massachusetts governor Patrick is one of Obama’s closest friends, a fellow Harvard Law grad with an impressive background.  He clerked in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, served as an assistant AG in the Clinton administration, has long experience in rights litigation, yet has also served as chief counsel for two major corporations (Texaco and Coca-Cola).  My own pick, of course, would be current Oregon federal district judge Michael Mosman.  Go figure.